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Wednesday, March 24, 2010

As many of you may've noticed, I've gone back to writing posts of a personal nature again. And by the word "personal," I don't mean "revealing everything" or "TMI," but rather, as in "a personal account" (of my experiences & life observations, etc.).

Hopefully, most of you will be pleased with this new direction, as some of you have expressed that you prefer the more intimate style of personal posts to the more cut-&-dried delivery method of solely factual, information-dispensing posts. In all honesty, I actually like to combine a bit of both styles, because, while each provides a different sort of reading experience, both are equally valid & insightful modes of expression.

So yes, I've decided to temporarily shift the current direction of this blog -- that is, a primarily article-based blog sharing facts & tips about fitness & nutrition -- back to its original conception & raison d'être -- a journal of observations, documenting my journey back to fitness -- since that's exactly what I'm doing at the moment. :) Of course, while I'm starting over again in terms of my fitness level & corresponding training program(s), I'm happy to say that I'm thankfully not starting from the exact same spot, in terms of my nutrition or weight management. :)

So, that's the plan, at least until I get back into the full swing of running again, & work my way back to my previous physical state of being. :) Once I return to marathon-training, I will continue to document the journey as time allows (marathon training is very time-intensive!), & then once the goal has been attained -- the completion of my first marathon -- I will then re-evaluate this blog, & see what I want to do with it. Most likely, I will go back to article-writing at some point, but either way, I don't want to make any promises or set anything in stone, as this blog is basically a representation of me & my thoughts -- a living, breathing, work-in-progress that needs the freedom to be whatever it was meant to be. :)

I'm changing the focus of this blog for several different reasons, none of which I really feel like going into at the moment, or otherwise, this post would be really, really long. ;) I'll just say this: This time around, the documentation of my thoughts & observations on this blog are not so much being done for motivational reasons, but rather for the more finite & focused purpose of tracking & monitoring overall trends that aren't necessarily linked to a particular race or run, to make sure I'm moving in the right direction with my training program & overall training-related behaviors.

In other words, the bulk of my training observations now will go here, instead of DailyMile. :) While I like using DailyMile for logging runs & interacting with & motivating others, I don't necessarily want to turn the entries there into full-blown blog posts. I used to do that in the past, & while it felt good to describe the experience of a run in detail, it also, frankly, became rather involved & time-consuming. And right now, I need to be especially mindful of where I direct my time & focus, as I've got a book to write!

Some of you might already know that I'm currently in the process of writing a book, healthy gourmet cookbook, to be more precise. (Of course, I'm writing it especially with runners & other health-minded individuals in mind.) And then, after that, I intend to write a completely different book, i.e., a novel. As some of you might know from direct personal experience, this takes an awful lot of time, & so, in the interest of practicality, I've decided to curb certain writing activities in an attempt to get others done. :)

That doesn't mean I won't post much anymore, but rather that when I do, the posts will probably be shorter & more focused than they have been in the past. As for the regularity of posting, I cannot comment on that, since I have no idea what my book-writing schedule is going to look like three months or three years from now.

While I'm fairly disciplined in my writing, I'm not the kind of book-writer that can robotically turn out a page a day. I prefer to work organically. I sit down every day to write: Sometimes I write a page or two, & sometimes I write pages and pages. I'm not going to force the writing process in a way that threatens to cut off the source of creativity. :) All I can say is that I sit down every day to write & put in the effort; what comes out or how much comes out is not always something that can be fully controlled or directed by me. This might seem like an odd assertion to some, but those people who are creative souls will understand exactly what I'm talking about. Creativity is a mysterious force, & while I acknowledge that there are some aspects of the writing process that are fully within my control, I also realize that there are other parts of the process that are best left to percolate on their own schedule. :)

It's also the type of writing I'm doing: It's not like I'm writing a white paper, journalistic-style article, or technical manual. These types of writing (i.e., writing done with a fact-finding focus) have a different overall process than what is generally referred to as "creative writing," or at least that's the way it tends to work for me. Please note, I'm not making any sort of value judgments or saying that one process is easier than the other, because neither statement would be true.

Speaking of which, I need to take a break from article-writing anyhow, as I was frankly getting a bit burnt out on it.

On that note, I must say that I'm really glad that I never went to journalism school, because I always knew from the start that I wasn't cut out for it. While I do enjoy interviewing people, reporting on my findings, & writing journalistic-style articles from time to time, it's not in my nature to gravitate towards this style or method of writing.

Likewise, you'll note that most of the articles I do write here (& elsewhere -- i.e., in the form of magazine publications, etc.) usually take the form of either advice or personal observations. Even the race reports I write aren't strictly just a "report" in the traditional sense of the word. I would go batty if someone told me that this is all I was allowed to do from now on. :)

I don't like feeling hemmed in by these kinds of restrictions. If given the choice, I'd honestly prefer to write short stories, novels, poetry, or essays. I'm essentially a creative soul, who enjoys bringing new ideas into being, versus focusing upon existing ones. :) (That should also explain my love of emerging technology, new music, pioneering scientific research, & basically anything involving the discovery of new frontiers.)

In a way, this blog is going to follow the same path. I will share practical knowledge of the new discoveries I make as I train, & while some of these findings might not to new to others who have been there before, they will be new to me & to others who are either currently going through the process or have yet to go through it. In this way, I hope to create solidarity with fellow runners who are also in the process of striving to reach similar goals.

So, while this blog will continue to be written from a personal perspective, I will just be easing up on the research-intensive writing for now, as I don't really have the time for it at the moment. Speaking of which, I need to get back to the cookbook writing. Later!

1 comment:

Blogging is a wonderful way of getting some thoughts "out there" and letting them germinate before "putting pen to paper" - or finger to keyboard. I think it's so cool that you're writing a cookbook and then, gulp, a novel.

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